Friends at Larrapin Leigh on 15 Feb 2010 08:55 am
Love those chix…
Fayetteville has been aflutter with gardening and chicken energy this weekend. I used up my usual entire month’s worth of off-the-farm socializing attending local events on chix and planting! First there was a screening of the film about Mad City Chickens, a funny show documenting the adventures of wanna-be urban chicken wranglers in Madison, WI. Great fun! Then there was Fayetteville’s first community seed swap at the public library. WOW! The place was mobbed with folks! It is so thrilling to see people so eager to learn or continue learning about growing their own food and exploring the farm animals that hold such a place in our heritage. Watch out Fayetteville, it seems that goats come next!
Anyway, the chicken film made me nostalgic, thinking about the day-old-chicks to big laying hen journey I made with this current batch of Buckeyes & Australorps. So below are links to three posts documenting some of that adventure. I get excited thinking that later this year there will be another cheeping box of babies to pick up at the post office….
Below is the little video shot when the chix were just a day or so old. They are so cute at that stage they don’t even look real. (If you are reading via email, click the blue title of this post at the top to go to the blog and see the video and other pics.)
They grow up fast though! The post below is about the babies first big day out in the big-chicken world. (There was an intermediate sized pen involved obviously!)
Buckeyes explore their big bird digs! Click to read that post and see more “teenage” pics over at the old blog.
Here are the gals turning into lovely pullets. Click to read that post.
And finally, some pics above of the girls all grown up into fat laying hens. (Click on pics to enlarge.) Here they are exploring one of the many recent snowfalls. They are not fans of the white stuff. In fact it seems to make them a bit grumpy. But Spring is coming, I tell them…and myself! Thanks for stopping by A Larrapin Garden.
4 Responses to “Love those chix…”
on 16 Feb 2010 at 10:13 am # LYNN ROGERS
Hi Leigh,
Enjoyed your blog on chickens. I grew up with my grandparents who raised chickens and rabbits. We also had a cow.
I can remember getting the new chicks in. Sometimes, if the incubator were full, Grandma would put them in the recently warmed oven.
At Easter, we always had chicks and bunnies to play with. We raised White Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds with a few Banties and Guineas thrown in.
on 16 Feb 2010 at 12:02 pm # Leigh
Thanks Lynn!
One of the best things about the new veggie garden spot where we’ll break ground this spring, is that it’s right next door to the chickens. They are such fun gardening company (er, on the other side of a fence, I should add!) and always have an interest (and opinion) about whatever I happen to be doing out there.
I’m so glad Fayetteville is letting city dwellers get to have that kind of fun.
I wish we had the land for a cow! I’ve missed the goats so much…may have to get another set in 2011 or 12! 2010 is going to be too busy with getting this new garden space in shape for growing…except deer-free this time thanks to a 6+ foot fence!! So glad you stopped by! I’m loving your blog!
on 19 Feb 2010 at 10:37 pm # Jen
I had so hoped to go to the seedswap. I’m glad it went well.
on 24 Feb 2010 at 7:22 am # Leigh
The seedswap was fun…and a madhouse with so many people! I have a friend who hosts a seedswap at her house every February for about six gardening friends. It is so fun! Gather some friends and do this every year! It’s made me more interested in learning how to save seeds correctly (so the seeds will indeed be true to type and not mixed with other things from the garden).